The UN chief noted that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had triggered “the most massive violations of human rights”

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine triggered “the most massive violations of human rightsin the world today, the UN chief said Monday, as the war entered its second year with no end in sight and tens of thousands of deaths.

The Russian Invasion”caused widespread death, destruction and displacementsaid UN Secretary-General António Guterres in a speech to the UN-backed Human Rights Council in Geneva.

After failing to capture the Ukrainian capital in the first weeks of the invasion and suffering a series of humiliating reverses in the fall, Russia has stabilized the front and is focusing its efforts on capturing four provinces that Moscow illegally annexed in September: Donetsk, Kherson, Lugansk and Zaporizhzhia. Ukraine, for its part, hopes to use tanks and other new weapons promised by the West to launch new counter-offensives and retake more occupied territory.

Guterres said that “attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure have resulted in many casualties and terrible suffering”.

Intense fighting for territory in eastern Ukraine erupted on Sunday at a Ukrainian field hospital treating the wounded in the intense battle for the devastated town of Bakhmut. A steady stream of battered and exhausted soldiers arrived on stretchers.

Guterres’ remarks came as Ukraine’s military claimed Russia launched explosive drone strikes in various parts of the country that lasted from Sunday night to Monday morning, killing two people.

António Guterres cited cases of sexual violence, enforced disappearances, arbitrary arrests and violations of the rights of prisoners of war. documented by the UN human rights office.

He denounced how the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, now 75 years old, has been “too often misused and abused”. “It is exploited for political purposes and often ignored by the same people,” said António Guterres. “Some governments are eroding it. Others use a wrecking ball.”

“Now is the time to stand on the right side of history.he told the Council, the UN’s highest human rights body. Russia stepped down from the post last year amid increased international pressure over the war in Ukraine.

However, Russian authorities have given few signs of reconsidering their attack on their neighbor. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday: “Now we see no more conditions for a peaceful agreement.”

About 150 senior leaders, including the heads of diplomacy from France, Iran and China, will take part in the HRC meetings until Thursday. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will speak via video link on Monday.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov is expected to speak on Thursday. Despite appeals from NGOs, it is not certain that diplomats will leave the room when the Russian official speaks, as they did last year when the head of Russian diplomacy Sergei Lavrov participated by videoconference. to a boycott.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine will be at the center of the debates. At the end of the session, there will be a vote to continue the work of researchers of the body on the former Soviet republic, which will present its first report on March 20, after having already mentioned possible war crimes in September.

Ukrainian Ambassador Yevheniia Filipenko calls for a “strengthening” of the resolution, so that the mandate of the investigators is defined. But it is not guaranteed that the final text reflects the will of kyiv, due to the possible blockade by other countries.

“We are going to have to be very dynamic and very active so that the resolutions of other countries are approved and prevent a China-Russia-Iran-Venezuela-Cuba axis from building a wall against the resolutions,” a European diplomat told AFP. .

In IranAfter the crackdown on protests sparked by the death in custody of young Mahsa Amini, the mandate of the country’s rapporteur is at stake.

“The priority is that the mandate be extended. But the second priority is for the text to reflect the terrible deterioration of the situation that has taken place in recent months since the assassination of Mahsa Amini,” a Western diplomat said.

(With information from the AP and AFP)

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